Hamas Hands Over Dead Israeli Hostages In Black Coffins

Tons of watched on Thursday as 4 black coffins, which Hamas stated held the stays of Israel’s Bibas household and an aged hostage, had been carried off stage by Palestinian militants in southern Gaza.

The ceremony, held on a sandy space that was as soon as a cemetery earlier than its destruction by Israeli forces, marked the primary handover of deceased captives below a fragile Israel-Hamas truce.

It started with a militant, his face wrapped in a purple and white keffiyeh scarf, seated on the stage to finish paperwork with a Crimson Cross official. The stage featured a banner with a picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a bloodied vampire over pictures of the 4 returned Israelis.

“Struggle Felony Netanyahu and his military killed them with missiles and Zionist warplanes”, learn the signal.

The coffins — which bore pictures of the deceased in addition to of Netanyahu — had been positioned one after the other into separate Crimson Cross autos after being coated in a white shroud as a chilly drizzle fell.

Photographers and videographers sporting Hamas headbands walked round, cameras in hand, to seize the second. 

Hamas stated it was returning the our bodies of Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir — who at solely 9 months previous was the youngest hostage taken throughout Hamas’ unprecedented assault on October 7, 2023. 

The fourth hostage was Oded Lifshitz, 83 on the time of his seize.

Destroyed cemetery

“We preserved the lives of the occupation prisoners (hostages), offered them with what we may, and handled them humanely, however their military killed them together with their captors,” the Islamist motion stated in an announcement.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated, in an announcement launched after Hamas handed over the our bodies to the Crimson Cross, “our hearts — the hearts of the complete nation — lie in tatters”.

Armed males in army fatigues and sporting Hamas inexperienced headbands had been ubiquitous on the lot which was cleared for the switch. They stood across the stage and lined up on each side of the street the place the Crimson Cross autos handed.

“The lifeless had been revered regardless of the occupation’s humiliation of prisoners and martyrs,” Mentioned Ubade, 32, advised AFP, after the Crimson Cross known as for the “dignified and personal” switch of hostages and prisoners after a swap final weekend. 

“I thank the resistance for fulfilling its promise and safeguarding the captives and our bodies till our prisoners are freed,” Ubade stated.

Hamas arrange its stage within the Bani Suheila cemetery, east of Khan Yunis, the place dozens of members of its armed Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades, and the Mujahideen Brigade had gathered.

A Hamas supply stated the positioning was chosen partially as a result of the Israeli military destroyed the cemetery in the course of the battle, exhuming tons of of graves and transferring dozens of our bodies for examination inside Israel earlier than returning most of them.

Abu Bilal, spokesman for the Mujahideen Brigade advised AFP that his group “accomplished all preparations for the handover of the stays of three our bodies from the Bibas household”, suggesting the lesser-known militants had held the three relations.

Earlier than and after the switch, Hamas fighters paraded, holding their weapons aloft, whereas the gang seemed on, surrounded by the remnants of buildings bombed throughout greater than 15 months of battle. 

Under the stage, the slogan “We by no means forgave nor forgot, Al-Aqsa Flood was our promise” might be learn.

The message was a response to a message Israel’s Jail Service printed on the uniforms of the Palestinian prisoners it freed final Saturday.

“We do not forgive and we do not overlook,” the Israeli message had stated. 

Among the many weapons Hamas fighters exhibited to counsel their brigades remained intact had been dozens of Kalashnikovs, M-16 rifles and some hand-held grenade launchers.

Giant audio system blasted chants, as youngsters and youth pressed themselves round a desk the place fighters displayed a big computerized rifle and its lengthy ammunition belt, in addition to anti-tank mines.

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